Fun. Friendly. Inspiring. Collaborative. Productive. If you wouldn't define your workplace with any or all of those terms, you may have to ditch your own desk and take a seat at a coworking space near you.

Anne Egros's insight:

“The future of work should not be dictated by space or place, but by the individual and the tasks that he or she has to deliver,”

As people and companies launch their brands on Instagram, many are struggling with getting their following established. Learn how to use it effectively and establish a consistent and engaged following.

Modern lifestyle, with its lack of everyday physical activity and exercise training, predisposes people to chronic diseases such as diabetes. In this article discover the multiple benefits of Nordic Walking.

This is the first article of this new blog dedicated to staying fit and healthy in Tokyo from an expat experience.

Leadership is not just for leaders anymore. Top companies are beginning to understand that sustaining peak performance requires a firm-wide commitment to developing leaders that is tightly aligned to organizational objectives — a commitment much easier to understand than to achieve.

Anne Egros's insight:

The technique developed by Marshal Goldsmith is very simple, yet very powerful.

He calls it the Feed-forward Method that involves the following steps:

1-Ask what can I do to be a better leader or a better spouse or parent

Adapting your leadership style to a different cultural setting can be tough, especially when the new setting demands a style different from how you would normally and comfortably behave at home. So how do you adapt your leadership behavior across cultures without losing yourself in the process?

While the conflict between Ukraine and Russia continues it is worth reflecting on what lies behind Russia's position.

Anne Egros's insight:

This article offers an interesting perspective on the Ukraine conflict.

Russians do not have the same logic regarding money than Western Europe or the U.S., so more economic sanctions toward Russia actually reinforce the patriotism of Russian people and make them feeling more and more misunderstood and unfairly treated by the West.

Here two examples:

Everybody in Europe was surprised that Mr Putin banned importation of fresh products from EU into Russia as a reply of Western financial sanctions, resulting in a sharp increase of local prices and triggering a 20 % inflation.

Although Russia does not produce those vegetables, fruits or cheeses, the majority of Russians are convinced it is good for their country in the long run and are ready to pay the price to boost "Made in Russia" products that actually do not and will not exist.

Saying that one of the reasons that Russians annexed Crimea was to reduce the costs of delivering gas to Europe is also a big misunderstanding of the Russian motives and values in this conflict.

As a result, Europeans were caught totally by surprise when Russian Gazprom, the world's biggest natural gas supplier, announced its decision to cut totally its gas shipment to Europe via Ukraine’s Soviet-era network and replace it by a new line under the black sea to Turkey. (http://www.bloomberg.com/news/...&nbsp;)

This decision is again totally absurd economically for Russia, but it has a logic you can find in History : the Russians preferred to burn Moscow rather than giving its resources to Napoleon when he arrives in the city in 1812.

I totally agree with the conclusion of this article and the metaphor about the wounded bear. I am afraid though that the misunderstanding between Russians and the West will continue to grow until eventually everything get burned.

When it comes to making strong, objective decisions, you're about the last person on earth you should trust. So today, we're taking a page from Seinfeld's George Costanza.

Anne Egros's insight:

The Opposite Test : In an episode of the TV show Seinfeld, George decides to do the opposite of everything he usually does, because his life sucks. When he begins to do this, his luck changes and everything begins to go his way.

Though seemingly simple, content curation requires insight into nature or subject of business you are promoting, key understanding of the audience which you already have or are likely to have. It involves organizing and sharing purposeful information which relates an authentic and trustworthy entity.

The last few decades has seen more and more people taking up a corporate expatriate posting, with all of the benefits and challenges an expatriation can bring.

Anne Egros's insight:

After 25 years of expatriation, experiencing very different cultures such as Japan, United States or Russia, I think I fit very well with the definition of an enthusiastic expatriate : I feel comfortable almost anywhere.

I consider myself a successful "serial" expatriate and I think the following characteristics are very important :

1-Curiosity with a thirst for experiencing "otherness"

2 Humility with willingness to learn different ways of thinking

3-A strong family with high resilience and an adventurous spirit

4- Deep knowledge about who you are, your strengths, weaknesses

5-Creativity and flexible attitude toward new challenges

6- Not afraid to step out of your comfort zone

7-Future oriented mindset

If expatriation is an addiction then by definition it means you can't stop moving even if it would be reasonable to settle down. Sometimes this is called the "Three Year Syndrome": some expats, get bored, after 3 years, especially if they have no other job than being an expat partner and did not blend with the local culture by establishing a network of local friends.

There is another reason why some expats move so often: with the globalization and the development of virtual teams, with some exceptions, there is no need to have long term expats once the knowledge transfer has been done.

There is also more and more people who work abroad who are not sent by big multinational companies but hired locally. The problem is then to find ways to keep a job until you can retire. Most of the time those people are forced to move to other countries where they can transfer their unique skills.

After 25 years of expatriation, experiencing very different cultures such as Japan, United States or Russia, I think I fit very well with the definition of an enthusiastic expatriate : I feel comfortable almost anywhere.

I consider myself a successful "serial" expatriate and I think the following characteristics are very important :

1-Curiosity with a thirst for experiencing "otherness"

2 Humility with willingness to learn different ways of thinking

3-A strong family with high resilience and an adventurous spirit

4- Deep knowledge about who you are, your strengths, weaknesses

5-Creativity and flexible attitude toward new challenges

6- Not afraid to step out of your comfort zone

7-Future oriented mindset

If expatriation is an addiction then by definition it means you can't stop moving even if it would be reasonable to settle down. Sometimes this is called the "Three Year Syndrome": some expats, get bored, after 3 years, especially if they have no other job than being an expat partner and did not blend with the local culture by establishing a network of local friends.

There is another reason why some expats move so often: with the globalization and the development of virtual teams, with some exceptions, there is no need to have long term expats once the knowledge transfer has been done.

There is also more and more people who work abroad who are not sent by big multinational companies but hired locally. The problem is then to find ways to keep a job until you can retire. Most of the time those people are forced to move to other countries where they can transfer their unique skills.

Think about a time when someone you respected told you that you had certain strengths but also specific areas where he or she thought you needed to develop. How did you receive this feedback? Were ...

Anne Egros's insight:

Very good article and I agree both the person who gives feedback or the one who receives it, should drop judgement. Constructive criticism is still criticism and can hurt. The person who receives the feedback should listen and give back a genuine “thank you”, without trying to justify deny or argue,

Some aspects of organizational culture are visible on the surface, like the tip of an iceberg, while others are implicit and submerged within the organization. Because these ingrained assumptions are tacit and below the surface, they are not easy to see or deal with, although they affect everything the organization does.

At an industry conference this week attendees agreed that one of the issues that concerns them most is culture. This is not a surprising outcome since the industry has seen the entrance of many other competitors and a disruption to business as usual.

Using the iceberg model we can illustrate why complex change like cultural transformation is so difficult. There is widespread knowledge that this kind of endeavor takes time and a lot of resources. Why? Because the heavier lifting needs to be done “below water” to ensure that there is complete understanding of impacts/challenges that the new normal poses to shared assumptions, perceptions, values, beliefs, traditions and feelings. Then plans must be created and implemented to support the learning and adjustment required for the new norms, traditions and procedures that come with transformation. This is not a quick program because under water is where we deal with the emotional and sometimes “messy” side of an organization. A good change program anticipates and prepares for the journey of transformation using the whole iceberg. Leveraging a good change partner is a common strategy that allows the organization to focus on the “above water” activities while the partner helps with the “under water” challenges.

If you’re thinking about culture change, know what you’re getting into and that there are no short cuts. However, if you’re dealing with disruption in your industry, and a strategy of improvements is no longer good enough, you may well want to ask yourself, “Can I afford not to undertake culture change to meet my business goals?”

I always love articles like this one, because they offer juicy insights on bad habits many of us pick up in our communication methods, be it email, blogging or professional writing. But therein lies the difference.

Your choice of wording in your conversational communications does not need to be of the same caliber as your professional communique's, so it's hard to lay down the law on what's correct or appropriate across the board. As much as I enjoyed this author's take on vernacular stupidity and her wonderful sense of humor, it occurred to me that this would be an important point to add. (Has any prof seen the word "honestly" - as in "honestly, this cellular division deserves more study" in a master's thesis? I hope not!)

Professional communicators who put out the do's and don'ts are to be applauded for their bravery, Jennie included. It's a certain way to put your neck on the line because there are as many opinions on what makes for good communication as there are bloggers, article writers and tweeters. Someone is bound to point out, for example, the flaws in sentences like this one: "What it does is makes your statement less specific."

Now, here's my real follow-up thought: what should we do when we hear/see "irregardless" in communications? How do we nuke that sucker from both vernacular and professional communications? Honestly, I am not sure it can be done. But we should really try, as it is very very irritating. :-)

James Joyce’s famous statement that “history is a nightmare” from which we should try to awake, aptly describes current events in the Ukraine. All nations involved in these events are biased by the remembered, misremembered, forgotten, and mythologized history they carry in their heads.

Anne Egros's insight:

"Our national memories have the passion and power to drive us blindly to hatreds and to war"

History is actually biased opinions based on popular stories that people believe as facts and do not challenge.

Those stories are used to exacerbate our patriotism: "our stories" versus "the "enemy stories". They are used in propaganda and to manipulate the public opinion toward a common goal : eliminating the enemy.

For example, Hillary Clinton, on March 5, said that Putin’s concern for Russians in Ukraine is like Hitler’s concern for Germans in Poland and Czechoslovakia.

This is a very good example of manipulation:

Labeling Putin as "Hitler" is a sure way to activate a demon in the American national memory and to mobilize the United States to again fight the evil personified (just like Saddam Hussein, Fidel Castro, Chavez, Allende or Gaddafi , to name a few of many leaders that have

been called "Hitler" by American politicians")

Russians are looking at Ukraine as increasing the threat of being invaded. After the collapse of the USSR, many previous Soviet republics in Eastern Europe are now members of NATO with military bases. Ukraine and Belarus are actually the last soviet republics that are not EU members.

Each era of Russian history has had its military super-power, and each super-power in turn attacked Russia: Turks, Poles, Swedes, French, Germans, British, and Japanese have each invaded Russia more than once.

The Intercultural Development Research Institute is an international non-profit organization whose mission is to contribute to a constructivist definition of the field of intercultural communication and to support continuing and new research in intercultural...

Introduction to Communication Science by Rutger de Graaf University of Amsterdam

Anne Egros's insight:

Analysts of the First World War found a direct correlation between Media campaign for war and patriotism on one hand and the motivation of patriotic people ready for war. That is the power of propaganda.

Now If I think about how much more messages are sent today compared to 1913 via traditional mass media and how personalized social media messages are, do you think we have already a recipe for a hot war between US, EU (NATO) and Russia about Ukraine ?

Are those articles showing real threat from Russia or is it Western media propaganda ?

The executive director of real estate agency Evans Property Services, told The Moscow Times that there were about 20 percent fewer requests for Moscow home rentals for expats in the last quarter of 2014.

Anne Egros's insight:

"The main reason that expats are leaving is that if they are paid in dollars, euros, pounds, etc., then they have suddenly become doubly expensive," he said.

Foreigners who come over on a corporate contract, "will stay if their particular business is doing OK, but many will find themselves sent home or to another market."

Sharing your scoops to your social media accounts is a must to distribute your curated content. Not only will it drive traffic and leads through your content, but it will help show your expertise with your followers.

Integrating your curated content to your website or blog will allow you to increase your website visitors’ engagement, boost SEO and acquire new visitors. By redirecting your social media traffic to your website, Scoop.it will also help you generate more qualified traffic and leads from your curation work.

Distributing your curated content through a newsletter is a great way to nurture and engage your email subscribers will developing your traffic and visibility.
Creating engaging newsletters with your curated content is really easy.